You’re Dead to Me, the new Gen-Z horror film from director Juan Pablo Arias Munoz, bills itself as a love letter to ’90s horror classics, and it launches into that vibe immediately with an opening sequence clearly modeled on the opening of Wes Craven‘s Scream. It’s either gutsy or foolhardy, but right away, you get a sense of the film’s ambitions. 

The problem is that when you come at something like Scream, you better not miss, and for all its well-cultivated ’90s horror vibes and its efforts to become something singular along the way, there’s a lot about You’re Dead to Me that misses. This is a movie that wants to be at least half a dozen things at the same time, and while it’s got solid visuals, a game cast, and lots of bravado, it’s simply spread too thin to make any of its ideas satisfying. 

Indy (Siena Agudong) and Brynn (Jessica Belkin) are best friends, bonded by their shared struggles with loss (Brynn’s mother is gone, as is one of Indy’s sisters) and the feeling that they’re the only people in their high school who truly understand one another. When we meet them, they’ve opted to stay away from the traditional high school celebrations and host a “Too Pretty for Prom” party at a secluded mansion owned by Brynn’s absent father. It’s a chance to grow closer and celebrate their way, even if the only other guest is their mutual friend Jordan (Conor Husting) and everyone else seems to have opted for prom. 

But the vibes are soon squashed. While Indy and Jordan try to work up the courage to give Brynn some bad news about their post-high school plans, a classmate turns up dead, reigniting speculation that a serial killer is operating in town. Throw in a deranged neighbor (Denise Richards) who won’t take no for an answer, and it feels like the walls are closing in on the trio, particularly as Indy starts to have visions she can’t explain tied to her sister, Brynn’s mother, and a room she’s never seen before.

A slasher and weird visions? Yes, and here’s where You’re Dead to Me starts to play with its true tribute to ’90s horror, helped along by co-writer and producer Terry Castle, daughter of William Castle, who helped get those Dark Castle remakes off the ground at the turn of the Millennium.

This is a movie that isn’t satisfied to simply be a slasher, playing within the firmly established bounds of that subgenre. It wants to be a slasher and a psychological drama and a possibly supernatural piece of Gothic horror, with notes on internalized misogyny and conformity sprinkled in along the way. There are classic slasher sequences with lots of suspense, but there are also wild dream sequences full of quick cuts, jittery frame rates, and jump scares, all eventually centering around Indy and the transitional phase of her life where the film begins.

She’s on the cusp of college, of a new life full of possibilities, but she feels beholden to the people who got her there, to the support system she’s leaving behind, and, of course, to her best friend. Her mental state is reflected in the often chaotic nature of the film, and when You’re Dead to Me is playing within these bounds, helped along with dreamy visuals and genuine tension, it’s working. 

But somewhere along the way, that sense of chaos starts to grate against the audience, and You’re Dead to Me starts to drag under the weight of its own ambitions. It’s clear that the hybrid subgenre mash-up of the story is meant to render it unconventional in both the slasher space and the psychological horror space, but that can only take you so far before the film needs a narrative around which it can coalesce. The core has to stay strong, and for all the style points it racks up along the way, the movie just can’t hold on to that emotional tether that keeps us hooked to the end, in part because it wants so badly to keep us guessing that we lose all sense of direction. 

I’ll give you an example: At one point, a teenage boy in the year 2025 answers a phone call from another teenage boy who simply says that he’s sending a link. A phone call just to say “I’m sending you a link.” Why? Because the film has established, in the proud Scream tradition, that when the phone rings, a killer might be calling, so the phone needs to ring to keep up suspense. In another scene, a character sits up and swears she hears something, and as we in the audience hear a very audible human scream, she says she hears “footsteps.”

Characters who come and go may as well have “Red Herring” stamped on their foreheads, and the film spends so much time building up lore and backstory that it barely leaves room for slasher chases and spectral nightmares. Then, when the spectral nightmares do come, we’re left unsure what’s real anymore, until the third act finally, sort of, explains why it all feels so disjointed. It’s a movie that aims at deliberate obfuscation and misdirection, but just ends up confusing. 

Which is a shame, because there’s a lot of talent on display here, and I don’t just mean with the visuals. The young cast is earnest and exciting, the premise is interesting, there are flashes of really solid storytelling in the script, and the kills, when we get them, actually work.

If this film had picked a lane, or even two lanes, and tightened up its thematic concerns along the way, it might be something much more satisfying. As it is, it’s an overstuffed mess, but at least it’s an interesting one.

You’re Dead to Me is available on Digital and VOD on July 7.